Chronic Inflammation: Signs, Symptoms, and Testing

Jim is a 45-year old white collar accountant working 60 hours a week. He’s married with three kids and in the last year, Jim hasn’t been feeling like himself. He picked up a spare tire and found it harder to get out of bed every morning. He always feels tired and keeps thinking he needs to make a Doctor’s appointment.

On Wednesday’s, Jim usually comes home to an empty house and cooks a loving dinner for the family. This Wednesday, when his wife got home with the kids, something seemed off.

The front door was wide open and when they walked in, dinner wasn’t ready. They paused in the foyer, paralyzed by the sinking feeling something was wrong. Heart beating faster, throat tightening up, Jim’s wife slowly peeked into the living room.
There lay Jim’s lifeless body, collapsed before he could reach the couch.

Panic. Tears. 911.

But it was too late. Jim was dead from a massive heart attack that ended his life too early. How could this have happened?

Every Action Contributes to Health or Promotes Disease

Actions that promote disease create chronic inflammation, which is correlated with just about every disease known to man. (1) In 2004, Time Magazine called inflammation “The Secret Killer” and each day we make choices about this so called “secret killer,” just like Jim did. For example, every food we choose to eat, every pill we take, the time we decide to go to bed, the city we choose to live in, the job we choose to have… each one contributes to chronic inflammation or helps calm it down.

So, every choice we make about our health boils down to this: Pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory.

Working 100 hours a week at a stressful job with no sleep? Pro-inflammatory.

Years of making pro-inflammatory choices add up to chronic inflammation…

Chronic Inflammation is Like a Fire Raging Inside You

Inflammation is a normal immune response in your body. It’s usually our friend. Think of it like the first responder to the scene of the injury. Pain, swelling, redness, and warmth are all signs of inflammation arriving at the site and helping your body with the healing process.

Acute inflammation is a brief inflammatory response to an injury or illness that only lasts a few days. Here’s a few examples where it helps:

Injury (twisted ankle, broken arm)

Bacterial or viral infections

Sunburn

Cuts

But chronic inflammation is when things go south.

Inflammation becomes chronic when it stops being an acute response and remains a constant low-level physiological response. Think of it like starting a small camp fire meant to keep you warm that doesn’t get put out and grows into an out of control forest fire, burning 100,000 acres.

Chronic inflammation is when your body no longer has the ability to turn off the inflammatory response and it starts damaging healthy tissue in your body. It could damage the intestinal lining in your gut and cause digestive problems, it could damage the arteries in your heart and cause heart disease, or it could damage your joints and cause rheumatoid arthritis.

At that point, too many pro-inflammatory choices have created a monster.

Signs You Have Chronic Inflammation

The red flag for Chronic inflammation comes when a disease associated with it shows up, like heart disease, cancer, or autoimmune disease like MS, Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s Disease or Rheumatoid Arthritis. If you already have one of these conditions like I do, the pro-inflammatory choices have already had a profound impact in your life.

Take Tom, he’s a high powered executive for a fortune 500 company, working 80 hours a week for the past 15 years. He’s got three kids at home and a busy life outside of work. Lately, he’s become 30 pounds overweight and started feeling fatigued. The last few weeks he’s noticed blood and mucous in his stool and he’s worried it’s going to start affecting his ability to do his job.

Then there’s Annie, she’s a stay at home Mom with three kids, two of which are home-schooled. After long days teaching her two oldest boys, she still gets up 2-3 times a night to feed her 4-month old daughter. Not only that, but in the evenings she helps out with the youth group at Church. She’s completely exhausted, losing too much weight, and recently got diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. She’s worried about being able to raise her kids.

Some of the symptoms both Tom and Annie might have seen coming earlier in life are things like:

Ongoing, irritating pain in the body (like the joints or muscles)

Allergies or asthma (especially when they keep getting worse)

High blood pressure or blood sugar problems

Ulcers and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (constipation or diarrhea)

Constant fatigue or lethargy

Skin problems or red, bloodshot eyes

If you think you have signs or symptoms of chronic inflammation, you can get testing done to find out if you’re dealing with the “secret killer.”

Ways to Test for Chronic Inflammation

There isn’t a single silver bullet test for chronic inflammation. But there are a series of tests that, coupled with your history, can give you a picture of the levels of inflammation in your body.

Here’s 6 common inflammatory markers you can ask your Doctor to test for:

Elevated High Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (HS-CRP)

SED Rate

High levels of Homocysteine

Elevated Ferritin in the blood

Elevated HDL

Elevated Monocytes can be a secondary indicator of inflammation

Elevated Blood Glucose is a leading indicator of inflammation

If the combination of these tests indicate you have signs of chronic inflammation, you need to focus on making anti-inflammatory choices from here on out.

This is life or death. Pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory. The real problem with chronic inflammation is that it’s not short-term gratification. It’s easy to pick the inflammatory choices and rationalize that it’s not a big deal. But the bottom line is: these pro-inflammatory choices add up over time until one day, chronic inflammation is the reason you have IBD, or heart disease, or RA, or even the reason you’re dead.

How to Turn Off Inflammation

Many times, the inflammation cascade begins in the gut… and in order to reverse the process of inflammation in the body, we need to start by healing the gut first.

We put together an online presentation called, “How to Turn Off Your Autoimmunity — and Restore a Healthy Immune System.”

It’s completely free, and in it we dive deep into autoimmunity and your gut health and how to begin to stop the inflammation cascade by fixing something called “leaky gut.”

You could spend years trying to figure out how to reverse the effects of a lifetime of inflammatory choices… or you could register for this free webinar and we’ll show you how to do it through the gut.

If you can’t attend live, we will send you the recording — but you must click here to register to make sure you get the link the next morning.

In good health,

Jordan

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About the author

Jordan Reasoner is a health engineer and author. He was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2007 and almost gave up hope when a gluten-free diet didn’t work. Since then, he transformed his health using the SCD Diet and started SCDLifestyle.com to help others naturally heal stomach problems. You can check out his story here and find him on Google+, Facebook or Twitter.

i have a question regarding diet. It seems that i have a special problem with every food thats supposed to be healthy and ANTIBACTERIAL. Garlic, Onion, Ginger, ACV, Peppermint tea and so on. Do you guys think this is some sort of die off? I get diarrhea from these foods. You have any ideas whats causing this?

@Markus – Interesting for sure, yeah it’s probably a really good sign that you’ve got something growing in you that you don’t want. I’d try and rule out SIBO, parasties and yeast overgrowth through testing if you can. That’s the best option.

This is a great info. I love reading Time magazine. I like fish oil but have found krill oil is great as an anti-inflammatory. It also lowers cholesterol. reduces blood pressure, joint pain and chronic disease. It’s the best anti-inflammatory I have found.

skinny me ate anything I wanted-from cakes to McD’s-I never put on an ounce-I used to joke that I could eat a lb of chocolate and wake up even thinner- The joke’s on me-now-I am under the care of a functional neurologist/holistic chiroprator-When I dragged myself to his free seminar, I was 95 lbs. My blood oxygen levels were 85-I had parasites-pre-diabeties-high sodium levels-was filled w/ unusual rage-had constant hot flashes for the last 10 yrs-no appetite-thinning hair-extreme fatigue-and mal-nutrition from horrible diarreha. That was in August-I am 50% better and must avoid gluten forever and a day-but at least it’s not Celiac-The best part is-I love life again-I’m still weak but I have more good days than bad- I traded in my corned beef hash & toast breakfast for a plate of fresh dark leafies-bacon or cod and homemade saurkraut w/ beet slices-yummm! I’m no longer “sour” – I love my new diet of supplements and natural foods-and even better, I realized how many people actually love ME and care about ME.

Very good story, so true. The only thing I am not sure about is the fish oil supplement. High quantities of fish oil increase intestinal permeability which can result in increased inflammation. I would rather go for whole fish.

Your list of inflammatory markers includes elevated HDL. Is that correct, or do you mean LDL? I’m one of those people with an HDL over 100 and doctors generally just say I’ll live forever. If it’s a marker for inflammation can you point me to more articles about elevated HDL? Thanks, Barb

Jordan,
I just ran across your link on a Crohn’s board. You might say I’m kinda new at reading the boards as I got Dxd finally 2 years ago, played the devil to get scoped Ins. co et al. My dad had Colon cancer. But what I find universally is that people tend to throw out acronyms continually. In your case SCD, I had to Google that one. care to throw out what the acronyms mean one in a while? I’m not trying to be disrespectful but constructive. New people to this exclusive club have to have as questions as I do.

hey diane, lets try to keep it friendly here. everyone is just looking for information for good health. any question is a good one, so lets try not to correct on another and mind our own business. thanks!

So important – thanks for sharing this. I do have a question, though. I just read on another site (a big name pro-vegetarian diet promoter) who was sharing with her readers that all meat and dairy is inflammatory (she didn’t say anything about grass-fed, pasture raised, and organic being any different). Since you guys have done so much research into this, can you comment? Thanks! 😉

Thank you for this article! It was great and very informational! There are also some natural supplements out there that are supposed to help with inflammation. One that I have been reading up on is called Zyflamend http://www.mynaturalmarket.com/New-Chapter-Zyflamend-180.html has anyone taken this before?

If you suspect you have an inflammation in your body, is there a risk with just changing your liftestyle to antiinflammatory WITHOUT doing any testing according to above? For example, just try your way forward with the SCD diet.

I have delayed gastric emptying. Most of the foods on scd make me worse. MEat, eggs, nuts. The only foods that n’t hurt mys tomach are rice congee, carrots, squash, potatoes, ground turkey chewed very slowly, squash. Thats it. I am on low fat and high carb and feel better. When I ddi scd i got so much sicker. Everthing caused pain and nausea ( i was eating all meat, eggs and carrots. Cut eggs and worse. The intro diet was hell. I can only eat tiny amounts of meat. I am gluten and dairy free and stopped nuts too.

Elevated HDL as an inflammatory marker surprises me. As I am trying to avoid the serious damage of metabolic syndrome, which is known also to increase inflammation due to the high-carb diet usually associated with it, then I would see elevated HDL as a good thing rather than negative.

Thank you for writing this piece on inflamation. I want to know where I can find the next article on the bath tub theory you mentioned at the end of the article. I couldn’t find it on your website. Please send me the link? Thank you.

I was so sick in 2009 that I almost died. I was feeling weak and ill for months, possibly years. All of the sudden I lost 30 lbs in two weeks. I had no idea what was going on. I gave up gluten, but it only helped a bit. My brother told me about the SCD diet. I went on it for a few months and felt SO much better. I do not follow the diet, any more, and I am doing well. Although it has taken a long time to feel better and stronger. I occasionally go back to the SCD diet when I feel the need. I love her recipe for yogurt.

I have had hives for over 10 years and take zyrtec daily. Have been to Naturopathic doctors who have done food allergy testing, metal testing. Removed all irritants from my system with no improvement. I am unable to lose weight. I would like to find out what is causing the irritation, but don’t know where to go next.

Turmeric is a very strong anti-inflammatory natural substance and when eaten with ground black pepper, the absorption is even stronger (but you also need to QUIT eating meats/dairy/processed junk foods too) Dr. Michael Greger of Nutritionfacts.org has a few short videos with citations and peer reviews on this in case anyone is interested. The Standard American Diet is killing us, folks, but you don’t HAVE to eat it. Heal yourselves with dark leafies, other veggies and fruits, beans and legumes…many are already doing so!

HI I have been doing research to find a more natural way to help my body. I became type 1 diabetic at 26 because of getting the flu that attack my pancreas and shut it down literally over night. I am now 28 and have an autoimmune disorder and inflammation problem that is causing scleritis (inflammation of the eyes) and the doctors can not seem to get it under control. I have been on a high dose of steriods and now on a medicine they give to people on chemo therapy that lowers white blood cells, affects the kidneys and liver. YIKES. Well my eyes are still very RED and now have other side affects from the meds. At this point in my research i am getting so confused between what to eat, cleaning my gut for leaky gut and supplements to take. Can you help point me int he right direction please.

Interesting read. I’ve almost always made health choices in the last 20+yrs… in my diet. 90% veg and healthy foods, 10% binge eg chocolate, crisps (chips), red wine.
I’m 47 now, and last year endured the most difficult stress in what has been a challenging life anyway.
My 90/10 rule became more 70/30, I packed on 10kg (22 lbs) and lately, I’ve had some very challenging health concerns which no doctor has yet been able to address I’m waiting on blood test results checking for inflammatory stuff, potentially for RA as my old injuries are hurting more than ever, and a viral issue I’ve had for 20yrs is worsening with no obvious triggers. I just want to get back to the gym, lose the weight and feel good again 🙂

My iron, vit d and calcium are in the single digits. I’m BALD at 49, ALWAYS burning up, have high cholesterol and blood pressure and am a hypoglycemic. My guts are spastic at odd times and I’m always in danger of squatting on the side of the road. It’s a nightmare and not one “Dr” seems to want to do anything other than write another freaking prescription! I’m at my wits end and quite frankly, I don’t think there ARE any answeres for my situation.

I was diagnosed on Wednesday, 3 days ago, with a chronic tissue disease, Sharp Syndrome. It has been a lot to wrap my head around. Can anyone offer me any advice or suggestions. I can’t get in with a Rheumatologist until August and I would like to make lifestyle, diet and supplement changes immediately. I’m currently taking a strong dose of steroids for the next week to help with inflammation and supression.
I have four kids, I know I need to slow down but man is it hard. I want to be around to watch my kids meet every milestone in their lives. They are my world..

Thanks for reaching out to us, Mel. Our Solving Leaky Gut program would be perfect for you because it addresses lifestyle, diet, and supplements. The best place to start your journey to better health is by signing up for a free webinar where you can learn more about the program and how it helps people in similar situations to yours http://solvingleakygut.com/webinar/live/

About 3 months ago I woke up and my left butt cheek hurt so bad in the middle that I could hardly move, but as the day went on it was better, this continued for about a month then when that stopped both of my upper arms hurt, not the joints, just upper arms and everywhere else I am just stiff-finally went to doctor is doing an immune panel bloodwork on me, i am scared to death, what can it be? This hurts so bad that i wake up in the night and can hardly move, same way in the morning till I take tylenol then eases up a little but not much, can someone please give me some advice

Hi Chris, thanks for reaching out to us. I’m so sorry you’re going through this, as it sounds really scary 🙁 You’ve made the right choice by seeing your doctor – that is definitely the first step! We’re here for you. Hope you’re feeling much better really soon.

THE 5-LOX ENZYME IS OUT OF CONTROL IN YOUR BODY….LAYMEN TERMS YOUR OWN IMMUNE SYSTEM IS STARTING TO EAT THE JOINTS AWAY…THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OSTEO …RHEUMATISM AND ARTHRITIS STARTS IN THE BODY …..2000 MG OF FISH OIL A DAY (OMEGA 3)……TURMERIC AT LEAST 500 MG DAILY MAKE SURE IT IS BCE -95 PROCESSED….AND THEIR IS AN EXCELLENT SUPPLEMENT FROM LIFE EXTENSION CALLED ARTHRO MAX…..THATS A MUST ALSO …. GOOD LUCK 🙂

If you want to get a healthy gut the best place to start is by taking the personalized quiz, which will help you sort through some of your issues and give you direction: http://solvingleakygut.com/myquiz/

We also highly recommend you register for one of our free Solving Leaky Gut Webinar’s, where the following will be addressed and much more:

I am going to Vanderbilt ASAP, because I have gotten worse over last few months. .. But my issues have been going on over a year….. The pain management Doctor, is claiming he can cure my Systemic Sclerderma, Rheumatoid Arthritis, ADHD ,Thyroid disease, IBS, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, and more….. He thinks it’s in my head…. while I have been constantly loosing weight, I wear a girls size 10 -12…. I look like I’m in chemo, from my hair loss…. painful joints caused me to head to ER… where I found out ,My count shows Extreme inflammation…. but the pain specialist never tested, me… I am constantly complaining about my pain remains a 7, an my life scale is a 2…. (he even force me to see a head doc)….. Please help, any information. ….

We’re so sorry to hear the issues you’re struggling with right now. A diet like SCD may be able to help with some of these symptoms because it promotes whole-body health – you can get started here: http://scdlifestyle.com/scd-quick-start-guide/ I hope you’re feeling much better very soon.

My body feels like its all inflamed. Burning and itching is driving me crazy. Feels like my whole body is hot but no temperature. Ran blood tests all normal xray of chest normal catscan. Been like this for over a month. Worst inflammation is left lower side of back 🙁

Gee, I feel like I hit the inflammation jackpot 🙁 I’m a 66 yr old, and I’ve been diagnosed with RA, alopecia areata, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and now i just had a dx of Epstein-Barr with IgG of 376.0! and igM of 36. Just had two episodes of campylobacter infections within 2 months, cellulitis from catscratch and also a diagnosis of hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s, and I am at my wits end. My doc says body is holding on to “stuff” since I had breast cancer and they removed 17 lymphnodes and radiation to the rest of them. I’m on pain meds as well as anti-inflammatories but the aches and pain and the lethargy and sleepiness just stick around. Any suggestions and help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Ruth – I’m so sorry to hear what a hard time you’ve been going through.

It sounds like you need the one-on-one support of a practitioner who can help you come up with an individualized approach to healing – you do not have to feel like this forever. http://scdlifestyle.com/practitioners/

I developed a lot of issues a few years ago while being exposed to spray powder in the printing industry. After years of being on a low salicylate, low amines and dairy free diet I ended up getting worse not better. I managed to greatly improve about 18 months ago by cutting out all grains but I am still having major issues with salicylate and protein so my diet is very sparse. I keep trying to introduce foods that contain them and always end up regretting it due to the inflammation it triggers.
To make matters worse, too much protein in a sitting will trigger an immune response (major fatigue) that lasts for days. I do eat lots of meat, it just needs being spread out over a day. I never seem to tolerate eggs when I try them every few months.
Gut wise, I had a parasite removed about 9 months ago (antibiotics) and I was tested for SIBO (negative result).
I was hoping that after 18 months of no grains that I would have been able to add things into my diet, but that hasn’t happened. Is there any advice that can be offered?

Has anyone considered they mifht have Lyme Disease with Coinfection?
I am 99.9% I have Lyme..which mimics 300 inflammatory/Immune Disorders…BUT…no mainstream doctor would believe it. They insist Lyme Disease is NOT chronic….but…they are SOOOO wrong!!!! I will say that Lyme Disease ” is a Rich Man’s Disease….so…if you are unable to PAY LOTS OF $$$$ to see a LLMD (Lyme Literate Medical Doctor)…you are shit outa luck.

Hi, I have been suffering with many of the symptoms described here. Joint pain, plantar faciatis, fatigue, cysts and so on. The doctors have not been able to find out that they are related but I feel more is showing off.

Which doctor in San Diego area shall I see that will have more of a broad approach and look at different angles to find what is happening.

I’ve been dealing with nerve pain in my face and the entire right side of my head for over a year now. I been to my regular doctor, a pain specialist, a neurologist, an allergist, and an ear nose and throat doctor. With each of them I asked about the swelling in my head, face and inside my ear. Only the neurologist thought to get blood work done. The tests showed I had elevated inflammation. The neurologist asked me to get my blood work done again and that time it only showed the inflammation was slightly elevated. I was on an antibiotic at that time and the neurologist said it wouldn’t affect the test. I still have significant pain and inflammation. Currently my primary care doctor thinks I have trigeminal neuralgia due to the significant nerve pain in my face and occipital neuralgia due to the pain on the right side of my head. I am currently taking gabapentin for this and it takes away the shocks of pain, but doesn’t take away all the pain. I don’t live close to any specialist (or really any good doctors) so I don’t like driving 4 hours one way to see someone that just tells me, I don’t know just keep taking the gabapentin since you seem to be able to function while you’re taking it. Being able to function doesn’t really feel like living some days. I used to be a very active, happy person and now I have days where it hurts to smile. Do you have any suggestions as to what type of a doctor I should see next? Or maybe what type of tests I should ask for?

We would recommend seeking out the care of a functional medicine practitioner. Many FMPs also offer distance consulting so you don’t have to travel. If you email us at [email protected] we can give you all our recommendations

I’m 62 next month and scared to death I won’t see 63! I have heart disease with one stent placement already. I suffer with incredible pain head to toe……the heat that is produced in my body on a daily basis is out of control, and my life is on a downward spiral. I am overweight, sad, scared, and of course depressed because of it all. Any help sure would be appreciated! Ps….exercise is a real challenge since I had my knee replaced which went south in 10 months, had a revision which left me with incredible pain still, and that same leg an 1. 1/4″ longer than the other.

Hi nadine – so sorry to hear what you’re struggling with right now 🙁 Don’t give up! We believe the root of all health is in the gut, and by healing your gut you will improve every aspect of your health. Learn more here: http://solvingleakygut.com/webinar/live-qva/

Hi, I have tried pretty much everything over last 7 years of chronic inflammation issue. Myocarditis the officicial diagnosis but clearly goes deeper than that. Interested in any thoughts or experience you guys may have. I am in wrong time zone (uk) so could you email me the recording too please.

I’ve been suffering from alopecia areata for the past 3 years. The AA has gotten significantly worse to the point I don’t want to go outside anymore.

I’ve eliminated alcohol, gluten, sugar, and take 1-2 probiotics daily to try to manage this uncurable disease. Recently I’ve been reading a ton about chronic inflammation and how it may be the cause of the AA.
Ive had a swollen ankle for the past few years from on ongoing sports injury and more recently a shoulder injury too.

Would accurate inflammation from an injury lead to chronic inflammation resulting in the auto immune disease?

Hi, i have chronic left knee pain from few years and recently left hip Pain started. I am worried to death since i m just 30. Could you please send me recordings of your session so that Probably they can help me?

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